At the Chinese Grand Prix 2026, McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri both failed to start Sunday’s race in Shanghai after separate pre-race issues. The squad had qualified on the third row, with Piastri fifth and Norris sixth. Both cars were returned to the garage before the formation lap and did not make the start, leaving the team to assess two distinct failures.
Chinese Grand Prix 2026: Expanding details
McLaren’s double non-start came after visible trouble on the grid: Norris’s car remained in the garage while the crew worked on a problem as the field lined up, and Piastri’s car was removed from the grid shortly before the formation lap. The incidents were separate in nature. Oscar Piastri, McLaren driver, described his issue as: “It was an electrical problem on the power unit, different to Lando’s. Just very unfortunate to both have issues, but we don’t fully know any more than that at this point so, yeah, obviously disappointing. “
The weekend result was particularly stark in contrast to the race winner, with Antonelli taking a first career victory. Other teams also faced difficulties: Gabriel Bortoleto of Audi and Alex Albon of Williams also failed to start the race. McLaren confirmed there were separate issues on both cars and said the team will work to identify each fault.
Immediate reactions
Lando Norris, McLaren driver, spoke after the non-start and offered limited technical detail: “Not a huge amount, honestly – just an issue that’s not letting us even start the car. That’s basically it, that’s all I know for now – I think they’re still trying to investigate what is actually happening or what’s going on and why it’s not working as it should. Of course frustrating to come such a long way, put in a lot of effort – not just me but the whole team – and not even start a race, so [it’s] disappointing. “
Norris added a team-focused note on recovery: “We’ve got to learn what the problem was, first of all – two different issues on both of our cars. Just unlucky, frustrating, but nothing we can do now. We just have to fix the issue, make sure it doesn’t happen again and focus on the next one. ” Piastri framed the day as a setback to be studied: “I think try and learn what we can by watching the race, then after that just trying to do as much work as we can before Japan. I think obviously the problems today have been annoying, but I think besides that we know we’ve got work to do to find more performance, so that’s what we’ll try and focus on. “
What’s next
McLaren will now move to fault diagnosis and corrective work ahead of their next event, focusing on distinguishing the electrical issue that hit Piastri from the separate fault that sidelined Norris. For Piastri, this marks a second consecutive non-start, following his missed home event in Australia one week earlier after a crash en route to the grid. Team engineers intend to study race footage and telemetry, then prioritise repairs and performance gains before the next race weekend. The team’s immediate objective is clear: identify and rectify the distinct failures that cost both cars the chance to start at the Chinese Grand Prix 2026 and prevent a repeat at the upcoming round.
